MEMORIES
March, 1979
SPLINTER:
"Please give me that picture."
I stared down at the pile of photographs, my eyes coming to rest on each one before I dropped it into the flames. The camera had seemed priceless, years ago. It recorded our lives, and I thought that I would die before these photographs did.
"What picture?"
"The photograph you just took of me!"
"Oh, that picture."
Tears burned my eyes as I ran my fingers over the photo, as if I could somehow touch her through it. Anger boiled inside of me and I forced it aside, surrendering instead to the sadness. I breathed deep and dropped another memory into the ashes of a former life. Another finds its way to my hands, and memories hit me forcefully, burning my eyes and searing my heart.
"If you want pictures of naked women, go buy yourself a magazine."
He buries his fingers in her hair and pulls her lips to his, kissing her gently. "But it is only your body that I want," he teases her.
"Yoshi, I refuse."
He wraps his arms around her waist and holds her close to him, parting her robe so that the heat from her body can rest against his naked chest. Mere centimeters away from her face, he smiles at her. "You cannot refuse me, Sakura-chan," he whispers knowingly. His lips brush hers and she melts into him involuntarily. "Your heart will not let you."
No photographs were so hard to let go of as these. The looks of surprise, the smiles, the laughter... no memories meant so much as the ones I held in my hand. They reminded me of what it felt like to make love to her. Even now, they jolted my emotions with the now-unfamiliar excitement that always came over me as I watched her undress.
It was not lust for her body that made it difficult to let go. It was the knowledge that this intimacy we had shared was gone forever. She had been so hesitant, and I never understood why. But she had trusted me once she had my word that no one else would ever see them.
"You are so beautiful..."
She smiles and opens her arms to him, welcoming him to the space beside her on the bed. "I love you, Yoshi."
My heart burned in my chest. I closed my eyes and relinquished the pieces of my life, one at a time.